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Non-NEC Console Related Discussion => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: vestcoat on October 25, 2012, 04:40:46 AM
Title: Windows 8
Post by: vestcoat on October 25, 2012, 04:40:46 AM
Comes out tomorrow. Anything cool in the works or is it just a bunch of touchscreen crap for tablets? Will Windows 8 Pro have the same expanded backwards compatibility as 7's Professional Edition? It's cheaper.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: Arkhan on October 25, 2012, 05:01:23 AM
It sucks.
Don't even bother.
You can pay 15$ to upgrade to windows 8 if you buy a computer at like BestBuy.
What's that tell you, lol
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: Opethian on October 25, 2012, 05:02:08 AM
tiles is the touch screen UI that is pretty much all you get in Win8 for phone and tablet (arm processor)
desktop mode is used to run all the x86 stuff like win7.
I loaded win8 RTM on a machine here and I dont see the need to install it anywhere until they lock the next version of drectx to it forcing gamers to upgrade.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: SignOfZeta on October 25, 2012, 06:36:32 AM
Not being a tablet person I don't have much use for this. People I know who are running it now do seem to like it though.
The one thing I like is the price. Hopefully its a step towards Apple's way of distributing the OS; no key, no DRM, unlimited downloads, unlimited licenses in the home, $30. With a new Mac you can litterally throw the HD in the trash, put a new one in, turn it on, and the thing will start downloading the OS. Now that MS is making entire machines I see no reason they shouldn't do this too. No more hunting for CDs and serials. Personally, I keep track of my shit. The public on the other hand and spoken, loud and clear, "I throw all the documentation that came with my purchase in the garbage can as soon as I buy the computer." There is no need to perpetuate the pretense that they don't do this.
This thing MS has been doing for 15+ years now where they put $180 retail copies of Windows on the shelf at Target that NOBODY BUYS has always been a mystery to me. Seriously, why do this do this? Is it basically just their round about way of renting ad space?
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: BigusSchmuck on October 25, 2012, 06:45:03 AM
Windows 8 sucks ass for a few reasons: 1. There is no system imaging available. In other words, if your hard drive crashes, guess what? You'll have to do a reinstall. It does backup your files though... 2. No native DVD playback. Not really a big deal if you use vlc player but it means you'll have to download the codecs and such in order to play dvds in windows media player. 3. The search feature is fubarbed. You can't do a search for all files and folders anymore. A good balanced review here: http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/windows-8-1093002/review#articleContent Not getting any brownie points over here at my work as we just now finished getting almost all of our users on Windows 7. I'll probably stick to 7 for now unless of course 8 decides to go 128 bit of course...
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: _joshuaTurbo on October 25, 2012, 09:50:53 AM
Wow, huh- it really is inexpensive.. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/windows-8-pro-costs-40-if-youre-running-xp-vista-858859
I'm just curious if you could take the installer and make your own disc.
I'll prolly stick with my Linux Mint set up I have, but I could take our XP tower and upgrade it just to try it out.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: BigusSchmuck on October 25, 2012, 10:28:03 AM
Wow, huh- it really is inexpensive.. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/windows-8-pro-costs-40-if-youre-running-xp-vista-858859
I'm just curious if you could take the installer and make your own disc.
I'll prolly stick with my Linux Mint set up I have, but I could take our XP tower and upgrade it just to try it out.
Been trying to talk my bosses into getting it just to try it out on a xp machine. I know it doesn't transfer programs from xp to 8, but it does transfer documents and files and such.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: SignOfZeta on October 25, 2012, 10:28:41 AM
I made a DVD of the "download only" Win 7 "student" upgrade version. It launches and installs Win 7 on blank discs no problem. Hopefully this will be possible with Win 8.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: Mishran on October 25, 2012, 01:19:51 PM
If its that cheap, I may put it alongside 7 as a dual boot on my notebook. Push comes to shove, virtual box that bitch. :P
I tried the prerelease version, and it isn't bad, but it is definitely meant for touch screen systems.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: vestcoat on October 25, 2012, 02:12:25 PM
Thanks for posting this Bigus. It looks like it boots faster, but I don't see anything new that I need. The new interface is cutesy and a big departure, I don't need cloud storage, I don't have a cell phone or a tablet and my video games are technologically ancient.
2. No native DVD playback. Not really a big deal if you use vlc player but it means you'll have to download the codecs and such in order to play dvds in windows media player.
I'm surprised they took DVDs out. It's fine if one buys OEM drives, but I buy a lot of used and refurbished stuff. I was just installing a used BD-ROM in my laptop the other night and dismayed to find the codecs weren't supported in Windows 7. I told myself, "well, it's a new technology, I'm sure it will be supported in Windows 8, like DVD's were in 7." I'm more surprised that Media Center is gone and that it apparently wasn't popular. It was sweet having music, DVD's, Netflix, my TV Tuner, and internet TV all in one place. The add-on key is free in 8, but how long will that last?
Yeah, it's cheap, but Windows has followed Mac's model of more frequent, incremental upgrades. They'll probably be trying to sell us 9 soon.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: soop on October 25, 2012, 09:43:55 PM
apparantly it's more lightweight than 7, and from what I've heard it's going to make my netbook a bit faster/more efficient. So I'd say it's worth the £10 for me.
*edit* Maybe "lightweight" is the wrong word. Less bloaty, more efficient.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: vestcoat on October 26, 2012, 02:47:47 PM
apparantly it's more lightweight than 7, and from what I've heard it's going to make my netbook a bit faster/more efficient.
Yeah, I guess the benefit of making an OS for tablets is that it can run on dinky little computers. The interface doesn't appeal to me, but it's cool to see a new OS that doesn't require any more memory or processor power than the previous release. Maybe it would be good for my GF's netbook as well.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: KnightWarrior on October 26, 2012, 03:02:44 PM
How much Ram will it take?
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: Mishran on October 26, 2012, 05:00:29 PM
My question of the day involves Xbox Live Arcade games. The preview releases of Windows 8 had tiles for a couple of XLA games, but they didn't seem to do anything on my PC. Can 8 actually play the games? Gotta admit, that would be cool.
As a side note, every place I called about Windows 8 had sold out of copies within 20 minutes of placing them on the shelf. :shock: Not that it matters, since my netbook lacks an optical drive anyway. :-"
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: SignOfZeta on October 26, 2012, 05:22:33 PM
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: SuperPlay on October 27, 2012, 02:33:38 AM
I have installed this today.
I have been looking at this with totally new eyes with no pre-conceptions. However I have a few frustrations already!
I am not going to make a full review as there are plenty of these all over the web. However I will post back later my experiences once I have used it for a few days.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: BigusSchmuck on October 27, 2012, 08:38:32 AM
2 gigs. But really, RAM is so cheap these days and if you have a pc made from the past 3 years or so that's really not an issue. If you are smart, stick to Windows 7 just for the simple reason that its backup system is so much better than 8. Not only that, but hard drives these days have a lot higher failure rate than say before the flooding of Thailand. Of course you could go solid state, but do you really want to spend $300+ on a 512 gig drive vs getting 2 high end 2 terabyte drives for the same price? Anyway, that's just my 2 cents. Windows 8 definitely won't get much support from the business community that much is for certain.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on October 27, 2012, 09:58:10 AM
Windows 8 definitely won't get much support from the business community that much is for certain.
Early on I dont think the gaming and modder community is going to care much for it either. Game performance currently is the same or lower depending on the game being played, and many people don't like all the crap you have to do to get a normal desktop interface going, among other things. Maybe as time goes on it will be more accepted, but personally, I see this as another Vista, and I ditched Vista after a week or two and went back to Xp until Win 7.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: vestcoat on October 27, 2012, 12:38:40 PM
I'll stick with Me... (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: SuperPlay on October 28, 2012, 03:01:30 AM
I found this short vid quite good:
Learn Windows 8 in 3 minutes (OK, it's really 4)
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: Duo_R on October 28, 2012, 04:19:31 AM
Thanks for the video. Anyone check out Win 8 mobile devices? Comes out in a couple weeks. I see it having a hard time taking share from iOS and Android.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: BigusSchmuck on October 28, 2012, 06:05:04 AM
Thanks for the video. Anyone check out Win 8 mobile devices? Comes out in a couple weeks. I see it having a hard time taking share from iOS and Android.
Yeah if its the RT version you can't join a domain and use Remote Desktop. Kind of defeats the purpose of getting a Windows Tablet vs the other guys at least in the business world. Unless you go Pro (haven't seen any tablets wit that yet) that will add quite a bit more for the price.
Netbooks and stuff with 32-bit Windows only need 1GB RAM.
Have you tried running Windows 7 with less than 2 gigs of RAM? It works, but not very good at all. I imagine Windows 8 will be even worse to work with if you don't got the RAM. I suppose if its the basic version or RT maybe but even then thats pushing it.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: SignOfZeta on October 28, 2012, 07:08:52 AM
Yeah, that's why I said, "All of it". If you have to ask, you don't have enough. The more you have, the better it will run, at least up to about 8GB, after that you might not notice an improvement. This is just the way OS are ever since the mid 90s and the advent of swap discs. Before swap discs it was easier...the OS would just tell you to f*ck off and buy more RAM!
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: vestcoat on October 28, 2012, 07:28:23 AM
Have you tried running Windows 7 with less than 2 gigs of RAM? It works, but not very good at all. I imagine Windows 8 will be even worse to work with if you don't got the RAM. I suppose if its the basic version or
Yeah, my lady's netbook runs Windows 7 Starter (32-bit) with 1GB. The RAM keeps up with Avast, Mozilla, and MS Word just fine. The bottleneck for her is the pathetic 1.6GHz processor.
I'm a diehard XP user (I initially downgraded my Win7 laptop to XP for a year and a half), but Windows 7 finally won me over with its ability to haul ass. Fast new processors, a 64-bit OS that's SSD friendly, and no stupid 3GB RAM limit really make a difference. It's also getting hard to find new components that don't have random glitches in XP. All of my annoying little problems with SATA, E-SATA, USB 3, and a graphics card evaporated when I switched over.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: BigusSchmuck on October 28, 2012, 08:14:40 AM
Have you tried running Windows 7 with less than 2 gigs of RAM? It works, but not very good at all. I imagine Windows 8 will be even worse to work with if you don't got the RAM. I suppose if its the basic version or
Yeah, my lady's netbook runs Windows 7 Starter (32-bit) with 1GB. The RAM keeps up with Avast, Mozilla, and MS Word just fine. The bottleneck for her is the pathetic 1.6GHz processor.
I'm a diehard XP user (I initially downgraded my Win7 laptop to XP for a year and a half), but Windows 7 finally won me over with its ability to haul ass. Fast new processors, a 64-bit OS that's SSD friendly, and no stupid 3GB RAM limit really make a difference. It's also getting hard to find new components that don't have random glitches in XP. All of my annoying little problems with SATA, E-SATA, USB 3, and a graphics card evaporated when I switched over.
Yeah, try running a solid state in Windows XP, its not a pleasant experience. :)
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: Marll on October 29, 2012, 10:54:16 AM
Installed it on my home gaming machine this weekend. Performance is good, games run great, but most of my time was spent trying to replicate the Win7 experience. The switch between Metro and Desktop is very disjointed feeling and doesn't flow well. I could see the OS being good for a tablet, but for a PC Metro just doesn't work well IMO.
I may keep it installed to get the performance benefits, but tailor it as much as possible to maintain the look of Win7.
I will install on my wife's machine too. Since she generally logs in and launches only LOTRO, GW2 or Diablo 3, the metro UI may be ok for her. The fact that you can't easily set your own Start background with a picture will annoy her though I'm sure LOL.
Title: Re: Windows 8
Post by: Necromancer on October 29, 2012, 11:08:16 AM
I've been thinking of building me a new computer, but I don't think I like the looks of Windows 8, though honestly I haven't given it much of a chance. Hopefully the backlash will be strong enough and they whip out a service pack that lets you disable the Metro interface entirely (the way it should be, dammit).